I am the poet of the body and I am the poet of the Soul. The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me. The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into a new tongue.

I am the poet of the body and I am the poet of the Soul. The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me. The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into a new tongue.

If we ever do make contact with an alien race they will definitely not be humanoid. There may be some similarities, for example being bilaterally symmetric and having some sort of eye(s) but they would be more unlike us than the majority of species on earth. I for one would be fascinated at meeting an alien race, and particularly in learning about their evolutionary history.
Also, communication is going to be a real *beep*. I live in Japan and haven't had an easy time picking up the language or local mentality. And this is all from other humans. Just think about all the common ground I already have with Japanese people. The same needs, drives, lifespan, senses, brain and body configurations. We take it for granted that we will be able to communicate easily when we watch too much Star Trek or Babylon5, but in reality it is going to be extremely hard.
Have you ever tried talking to an octopus? It's frustrating!

A book I read a while ago... Perhaps Stone God Awakens...had beings with three legs, and another had beings with three arms. So there are conjectures from writers about non-bipedal beings. A line I remember from the book that included the beings with three legs was when they noticed the two-legged human and asked "How do you balance on those things?"

Another one- Mission of Gravity (sorry- really bad with remembering names) had beings that I visualized as looking like bedbugs- flat. I can't remember how many limbs they had, but I don't remember visualizing them with two arms and two legs.

So a question that your post raises for me is would sentient, space traveling beings from other worlds necessarily have two legs and two arms? And what about fingers?

I agree about understanding beings who come from completely different environments and genetic makeups. Cherryh's Foreigner series deals with this to a small degree. Her Atevi are humanoid but are still different in motivations, in drives and abilities.